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M Aims To Move Up Notch In Tourney

M Aims To Move Up Notch In Tourney image
Parent Issue
Day
7
Month
March
Year
1966
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Copyright Protected
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Donated by the Ann Arbor News. © The Ann Arbor News.
Additional Text

Basketball, University of Michigan - Athletics, Michigan Wolverines, University of Michigan – Students,

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March 7, 1966 THE ANN ARBOR NEWS Page Twenty-One M Aims To Move Up Notch In Tourney By Wayne DeNeff Third in the NCAA Basket- ball Tournament in 1964 and second in 1965, Michigan has set its sights on moving up to first this year. The tourna- ment starts on Friday for the Big BU! ;. — !i;'; _el into tourney play, the Wolverines have an engagement at Mich- igan State ton: Much of i. aning is gone from tonight's game in view of Saturday's surprising -developments but ' the Wolverines vs. tin;: ^ciiians and the fans will pack Jeni- son Fieldhouse for the 8 p.m. contest which will be carried by WKBD-TV (Channel 50, De- troit.) The Wolverines, Big Ten titlists for the third straight year, will swing into tourna- ment action at 9 p.m. (10 p.m., Ann Arbor time) on the Iowa campus at Iowa City, They will clash with the winner of tonight's Western Kentucky (23-2)-Loyola of Chi- cago (22-2) game. In the first game of the Iowa City doubleheader, top- ranked Kentucky (23-1) will take on the winner of tonight's contest between Miami of Ohio (18-6) and Dayton (22-4). That's the field for the Mid- East Regional. Western Kentucky won the Ohio Valley Conference cham- :" nd Miami earned nerican title while Loyola and Dayton are "at- large" participants. Michigan and Kentucky, as winners of the Big Ten and Southeastern conferences, ad- vance automatically to the regional semifinals. Friday's winners will meet on Saturday for the regional championship and the right to advance to the national finals at College Park, Maryland, home of the University of Maryland. Friday's losers will play Saturday for third and fourth places. Michigan's spot in a third straight NCAA event came about suddenly and dramatic- ally on Saturday. Since the start of the West- ern Conference season, as Michigan rushed along in first place and Michigan State in second, fans in this state had looked forward to tonight's "showdown" in East Lansing. It was bound, it seemed, to be a knock - down - drag - out struggle for the Big Ten championship. But just after ate Wolver- ines had trottpd onto the Yost Fieldhouse i urday for their la?' '- game of the season Northwestern, the last seconds ticked away in the MSU-Indiana contest at Bloomington and the Spartans took it on the chin, 86-76. All the Wolverines had to Wolverines Play MSU Tonight do was beal the Wildcats and the Big Ten title and the NCAA berth were theirs. This they did, carrying out an as- signment which someone had written in large letters on the dressingroom board: "Oblit- erate Northwestern." The Wolverines fired in their first four shots on jump- ers and hookers by Oliver Darden, Cazzie Russell and Jim Myers to take an 8-0 lead and continued to play an inspired first half to lead, 54- 39. Michigan's shooting was a torrid .625 (25 of 40). Darden and Russell each contributed a couple of "impossible" bas- kets. The two combined for 40 points — all but 14 of the half- time total. Michigan suffered a brief spell in the second half when its pace slowed. Northwestern narrowed the gap to nine, 65- 56. But the Wolverines soon were on fire again. With eight minutes to play they led, 85- 67, and at the four-minutes mark it was 96-76 and Coach Dave Strack started bringing his seniors off the floor to thunderous applause. The victory left Michigan 11-2 in the standings while State dropped ring into tonight's final iii; ;iu While the pressure is off for 'Let's GoF Michigan's seven seniors huddle in a display of enthusiasm and unity just before starting their game with Northwestern in Yost Fieldhouse. The seven drew a rousing, standing ovation when they were introduced to the more than 7,000 fans who jammpfi (hp tieldhouse to watch them play their last home game. Capt. Oliver Darden faces, from left to right, Cazzie Russell, Jim Myers, John Clawson, John Thomp- son, Dan Brown and Van Tilloston. These seven players have accounted for 1,863 of Michigan's 2,155 points scored this season. tonight's game at Jenison Fieldhouse, the Wolverines still will be trying to e n d Western Conference play with victory and a 12-2 record. Michigan State can take some of the disappointment out of the weekend by knock- ing off the champs. Michigan shared the champ- ionship with Ohio State in 1964 on an 11-3 record. Last year, Michigan had first place all to itself and was 13-0 going into the final at Columbus. Russell became ill the night before the game and did not play. A sharp OSU crew left the Wolverines 13-1. Russell, Capt. Darden and their fellow seniors — John Clawson, Jim Myers, John Th^mncon Dan Brown a nd n — bowed out of Yubi i^imiouse in the best possible manner — a. third straight Big Ten title and a well-played game. Russell had another great day. By firing in 48 points he ripped into the one record which still ri"'';1"!'.''1 Fdi- him to break — . .... .,...,.., single-game Yost Fieldhouse mark of 43, set in 1961. That record might h'ave fall- en sooner had Russell chosen to do more shooting but Satur- day he fired up 34 shots, hit on 20 and scored on eight of 11 attempts from the free- throw line. Another record which fell was one Russell had set ear- lier in the season against San Francisco in Chicago Stadium. He tallied 45 points in that game which until Saturday was the most points ever scored by a Michigan player in one game. Russell's 48s w e 11 e d his three-season total to 2,077 and brought his total for this sea- son to 713, setting still another record and one which the 6- y/2, 225-pound Chicagoan still hasn't completed. As a sophomore, Russell set a Michigan individual sin- gle-season record of 670 and that record was improved to 694 a year ago. By scoring 105 points, the Wolverines continued on t h e scoring spree which has re- sulted in 100-plus points in five of their last six conference games. Behind Russell in the indi- vidual scoring was Darden who tallied 19 and Myers who had 14. Also in double figures was Thompson with 10. Russell's work overshad- owed a fine day by North- western junior Jim Burns who scored 38 points. Sophomore Mike Weaver tallied 20 and Ron Kozlicki had 18. Big Jim Pitts, noted for his rebound- ing and defense, managed to block two shots and had to take second place to Darden in the battle for rebounds. Darden grabbed 17 and Pitts 13. Michigan had the rebound edge, 61-48. Although the Wolverines couldn't keep up their .625 shooting pace during the sec- ond half, they still shot .540 on 47 b' -• ;n 87 attempts. It was ;,,. .,,,d game of ex- ceptional shooting. Michigan hit .600 against Purdue a week ' '• "aturday and had .636 ^,m,.,t Iowa last Monday. .',.• NORTHWESTERN (92) FG FT Re. P TP Kozticki _.___. .8-20 2.2 6 3 18 Weaver ,--„-.,_ 9-18 2-3 8 2 20 Pitts———--...,, 3-12 3-4 13 1 9 Tiber! —.._„ 3-12 1.1 4 0 7 Burns ---,-.---,... 13-35 12-14 12 4 38 Cummins ------..__. o'O 0-0 1 2 0 Totals 36-n'20-24 44 12 92 MICHIGAN (105) Clawson - Darden - Myers - - Russell . Thompson Bankey - Dill —-- Pitts ---- Brown „ Delzer _ _ Tillotson FG FT Re. P TP 2-7 0-093 4 S" 3-4 17 4 19 i-O a 3 14 -.-.. -i.ll 7 1 48 S-6 0-0 3 1 10 2-4 0-022 4 3-5 0-033 6 0-1 0-020 0 0-0 0-010 0 0-1 0.0 1 1 0 0-1 0-0 21 0 47-87 1I.1S 55 19 105 Team rebounds: Northwestern 4, Michi- gan 6. Half-time scores: Michigan 54, North- western 39. Officials: George Strauthers and George Sobek. Attendance: 7,265. Big Ten StandingsW L Pet. W L Pet. PtS. OP MICHIGAN 11 2 .846 17 6 .739 2155 1915 Mich. State 9 4 .692 16 7 .696 1825 1628 Illinois 8 5 .612 12 11 .522 2012 1945 owa 7 A .538 16 7 .696 1898 1705 Minnesota 7 6 .538 14 9 .609 1916 1919 Nor'western A 7 .462 11 12 .478 1710 1788 Ohio State 5 8 .385 11 12 .478 1774 1831 Wisconsin 5 8 .385 10 13 .435 1761 1842 Indiana 4 9 .308 8 15 .348 17(2 1870 Purdue 3 10 .231 7 16 .304 1847 2003 Top Ten DoingsHere's how the Top Ten teams in the Associated Press college basketball poll did last week, with won-lost records through Saturday, March 5: 1. Kentucky, 23-1, lost to Tennessee 69-62. 2. Texas Western, 23-1, beat New Mexico State 73-56, lost to Seattle 74-72. 3. Duke, 23-3, beat Wake Forest 103-73. beat North Carolina 21-20, beat N.C, State 71-66. 4. Chicago Loyola, 22-2, beat Bowling Green 109-70. 5. Vanderbilt, 22-4, beat Tulane 97-72, lost to Mississippi State 92-90. 6. Kansas, 21-3, or-ii Krinsas State 68-55. 7. St. Joseph- •4, beat Providence 86-67. 8. Providence,